Conventionally, for the dissemination of product information to customers, a distribution system employs store displays or publishes catalogs containing the images of products, and to evaluate such items that are thus offered for sale a shopper actually looks at or touches them, or watches and listens to images and sounds that they produce. However, since product information is selected and provided only in one direction, from the provider side, sometimes immaterial and unwanted information may be presented. Under the circumstances, however, because of the many variables involved, it is difficult for an information provider to resolve this problem and to prepare a broad spectrum of example operations or uses that would be attractive to all prospective customers.
As the current information communication infrastructure has developed, personal computers (PCs), which have rapidly been integrated into networks, have come to be used as information terminals and to facilitate the exchange of information on a wide variety of subjects. Recently, the Internet has been popularly accepted as a network that all can easily use, and PC users need only acquire communication devices to be able to join in the exchange activities that the Internet makes available, i.e., to engage in the bi-directional exchange of information. And when information can be exchanged bi-directionally between information providers and users, by taking advantage of the benefits accruing from the use of a network, it should be possible to distribute via a network information (content) users desire.
However, since it is difficult to prepare in advance information that a user may desire, to date, the information that is distributed across networks continues to reflect the intent and the motivation of providers. And it is difficult for a user to obtain what he or she considers appropriate information.
Further, only a small range of information concerning experiences and methods is distributed, because it is difficult to establish a trading plan that would permit such information to be handled on a network. That is, since it is difficult to use a medium such as printed matter, or a facility at a specific location, for trading engaged in by an unspecified large number of participants, a public space, such as a network, may be regarded as the place for trading.
Currently, trading tends to be performed via networks, and the trading method used, such as a charge sale or an auction sale, is proposed as an example of how to exchange assets. However, when the trading is in such assets as information, where value is lost once the asset is opened for perusal, a safe and efficient trading method or charge method has yet to be established, so that it is difficult to set up a trading method that is suitable for a public place.